The H-1B visas are the most sought after works visas by Indian IT professionals who desire to work in the United States.

The USCIS is accepting petitions for the fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct 1, 2010. The mandated cap or limitation on the petitions is 65,000.

However, the US Congress has said that the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed by individuals with a US master"s degree or higher are exempt from the H-1B cap.

“USCIS will monitor the number of petitions received and will notify the public of the date on which USCIS received the necessary number of petitions to meet the H-1B cap," an official media release said.

Since there is no last date fixed for submission of the petition, the process is expected to go on for a long period of time as the employment prospects in US is still a worry for the Indians despite the signs of economic revival from the slump.

This was seen in the last fiscal, when it took nearly seven months for the mandated cap to be reached. However, before that the cap was reached within a couple of days of the USCIS starting the process of accepting H-1B applications.

“If needed, USCIS will randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the petitions received on the final receipt date. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions that are not selected, as well as those received after the final receipt date," the release added.